by Brianna Crandall — December 12, 2016 — A new report from Navigant Research examines global energy storage projects, providing a database of more than 1,200 projects encompassing more than 43,000 individual systems, with an analysis of regional technology choices and market shares.
Market activity in the energy storage sector continues to grow, with new project announcements occurring routinely and industry players exploring innovative business cases to make energy storage systems (ESSs) profitable. Nearly two gigawatts (GW) of new ESSs have been announced in 2016 so far, and several projects have reached commercial operation this quarter alone. According to the report, lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries remain the leading energy storage technology for new projects worldwide (excluding pumped hydro storage), accounting for 83 percent of newly announced ESS capacity through 3Q 2016.
Ian McClenny, research associate with Navigant Research, explains:
While Li-ion leads in terms of technology, distributed energy storage systems (DESSs) are becoming increasingly popular in several regions, accounting for around 14 percent of new system capacity announced in 2016 — the highest percentage of any year on record. DESSs are generally much smaller than utility-scale systems and are expected to thrive as they become more cost-effective and productized, leading to more streamlined installation and opening new markets.
Projects using flow batteries and hybrid battery systems are also becoming more popular, according to the report. These systems can provide multiple services to the grid based on changing conditions and specific requirements.
The report, Energy Storage Tracker 3Q16, provides a comprehensive resource of global energy storage projects. The Tracker includes a database of 1,201 projects (encompassing roughly 43,083 individual systems) and tracks the country, region, market segment, capacity, status, technology vendor, systems integrator, applications, funding, investment, and key milestones of each project.
In addition, the report includes an analysis of the technology choice within each major region for energy storage systems, analysis of the leading regions for energy storage capacity and projects, and market share analysis for technology vendors for deployed projects and projects in the pipeline. An Executive Summary of the report is available for free download on the Navigant Research Web site, or the full report is available for purchase.
